Using a Color Wheel When Mixing Acrylic Paints

Using a color wheel will help you learn to mix acrylic paints to get the colors you want. Color mixing adds detail and excitement to your artwork.

The primary colors are yellow, red, and blue. No combination of colors can create primary colors, but primaries mix in various combinations to form all other colors. You make secondary colors (green, orange, and purple/violet) by mixing two primary colors. If you want to go farther, you can create tertiary colors by mixing one primary and one secondary color to get yellow-orange, orange-red, red-violet, violet-blue, blue-green, or yellow-green.

Keep this wheel handy to remember which colors mix to make other colors. Use the two colors on either side of the color you want to make to mix that color. Colors opposite on the wheel mix to make a gray or black. If you paint pure opposite colors next to each other, they will vibrate with energy.